CHRCH – Light Will Consume Us All (Review)

CHRCH are a doom/sludge band from the US and this is their second album.

My first encounter with CHRCH was on their split with Fister. I think you can safely say that I fell in love with them at that point, so it’s very exciting that their latest full length release is now here with a new 47 minutes of material for me to get lost in.

CHRCH’s music is heavy, yet shaded with selectively chosen aspects of light and dark. Doom and sludge form around the vocals of the band’s charismatic singer as she screams, growls, croons, and erupts out of the thick tar of the music with passion and serrated charm. Other vocals occasionally back her up, such as deeper deathgrowls or clean male singing.

Intense, but not without subtlety, this release is like a monolithic glacier; relentless in its progression, but so nuanced and textured that it almost defies analysis. Light Will Consume Us All just is, like a natural wonder, one that’s darkly beautiful, but also potentially dangerous and deserving of respect and caution.

Elements of drone, psychedelic, ambient, black, and post-metal weaponry are employed at various points throughout the songs, making for a very well-rounded and expansive release. CHRCH don’t limit themselves to what tools they use for the tasks they set themselves, as their overall aim is to produce colossal doom metal that’s as emotive and affecting as it is crushing and intense. Suffice to say, they succeed in this.

Across the album melody is bent to the will of the distorted guitars like a subservient slave, used effectively and then sent packing once it has served its purpose. This dynamic allows CHRCH to create added depth and substance in the music whenever they need to, but without compromising its overall heaviness. Hell, even when the band ease off the distortion and operate in softer, lighter territories, there’s still a certain heaviness of delivery, just of a different, more emotive kind. No matter what they do, CHRCH seem to leave an indelible mark in the musical landscape; this is music with high-impact and is greatly affecting.

I mean, what’s not to like on a release like this? If modern doom with a multifaceted and rich approach to providing huge, epic songs of crushingly emotive intensity is something you enjoy, (and why wouldn’t it be?), then Light Will Consume Us All is very definitely for you.